In Salisbury: Cranborne Chase AONB

August 28, 2022

We love our apartment here in Salisbury. The floor is on the level! It has two inner doors - one to separate the bathroom from the bedroom, and another to separate the bedroom from the kitchen/living area! It has a huge enlarged photo of Stonehenge on the wall, the sky tangerine hued from the sunset, the ground white with snow. It has a TV and Netflix in the bedroom, and a second one in the living room. We could watch wherever we want, or each watch our own shows and compare notes afterwards. A place we could live for an extended time if we wanted.

And so far we’re quite favorably disposed to Salisbury. It has an attractive historical center and ambience - rivers run through it, with the Avon and Nadder converging here. It has a young, almost festive feel, although maybe that’s partly because we’re here on a holiday weekend. And it’s right-sized by our standards - small enough that it’s walkable and easy to get into and out of by bicycle, but large enough that there are more than one or two attractive places to eat.

So, an excellent choice for a four night stay. I imagine I’ll get out on my bike all three layover days, and Rachael will fit in at least one walk along the Avon. Today though we’re going out together, heading west into what looks like the most scenic (i.e., hilliest) countryside around: west of town, in the Claybourne Chase AONB.

The loop begins with a seductively easy ten miles up the River Wylye, a third river that joins the Nadder just west of town. It’s relaxed riding through attractive country broken by interesting villages and towns. We’re still in Wiltshire but things look different here - there are still the thatched roofed buildings, but the building materials have a different look than we’ve seen before with interesting colorful walls of flint, brick, green stone of some kind, what have you.

13th century Saint Andrew’s Church in Lower Bremerton on the western outskirts of Salisbury.

Mosaic wall on the Old Rectory across the road from Saint Andrew’s Church.

Nearby in Lower Bremerton is Saint John’s Place: originally a church built in 1860, recently renovated and converted to a community center.

The entryway to Saint John’s Place doubles as a war memorial.

Saint Mary and Saint Nicolas Church, Winton. Folks are walking in for Sunday service, else I’d have liked to stop and look inside. It looks like a Romanesque cathedral you might see in Puglia.

A house in Winton. Winton itself looks well worth a slower look. I might have to pencil it into a second ride.

A pretty stretch of the road, along the River Wylye. What’s that estate up ahead though?

The Little Langford Farmhouse, an elegant B&B in Little Langford.

A chapel near the guest house, perhaps associated.

The easy part of the ride ends when we turn south and start climbing away from the Wylye on the first of the three climbs for the day, to the crest of Wylye Down. It’s not a bad climb in relation to ones we’ve been facing lately - slow and steady and then we’re on the crest line following it west and enjoying views down across the valley for a few miles until dropping off its west end into the upper Nadder valley.

An experiment. Flocks of rooks are surprisingly hard to get a good look at. Much more skittish than those intrepid jackdaws, they take flight as soon as you approach or stop in the vicinity. Rachael’s not in sight to scold me for it so I pull out the camera and fire off a shot while I’m biking, catching them just as they take wing.

The view across the top of Wylye Down. It’s so surprising being up on top of these downs - they look broad and flat, with no hint that they drop off sharply not far in the distance.

After our bouncy descent to the Nadder we follow it for the next ten miles as we arc around the west end of today’s loop. This is another relaxed, easy ride through a string of attractive communities - especially Tisbury and Semley. There’s a lot to slow down for and admire here; and really I could do a lot worse than just repeating this loop, maybe in the opposite direction next time.

I like this view across the Nadder, and the way the arc of the blackberry vine mirrors the border of one of the pastures across the valley.

And then another climb into the downs, and another drop - to Donhead Saint Mary and our lunch spot for the day, sitting in the sun on a bench in the middle of the churchyard.

And down again, dropping to Donhead Saint Mary.

Lunch stop, Saint Mary’s Church, Donhead Saint Mary.

Saint Mary’s Church, Donhead Saint Mary.

Finally, one last climb into the Downs again, crossing back over to drop once more to the River Wylye and backtrack the last few miles back toward town. A few miles from town we pass through Quidhampton and Rachael spots a pub ahead (which I’d noticed in passing earlier in the ride) and suggests I might want to stop in there while she continues on to town to find an ice cream shop for herself.

Deal. How can I take a pass on this suggestion? Besides, it’s nice to have an excuse just to loiter awhile in a place called Quidhampton, whose name Wikipedia tells us probably derives from the Old English cwéad (dung, dirt) + hām-tūn., meaning “muddy home farm" or "home farm with good manure".

Splitting the uprights, Rachael bikes between two huge beech trees that fuse into a single canopy.

Video sound track: Bright Moments, by Grover Washington, Jr.

It’s another Wiltshire White Horse! Better stop to check it out.

Fuller’s London Pride, self-claimed to be an outstanding amber. I’m not one to disagree.

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Ride stats today: 46 miles, 2,700’; for the tour: 2,294 miles, 138,300’

Today's ride: 46 miles (74 km)
Total: 2,294 miles (3,692 km)

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